Off the bat, I wound up back in Gary on New Year's day but only took one Polaroid. Was just showing a then-friend around, so the trip was nothing special. This guy's on one of the boards covering the Palace Theatre.
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However the following month, I went back without the extra baggage and rode the city bus down to a recently-shuttered high school. Took a while to get in and spent a good hour walking around the neighborhood before I could make anything happen. Pretty clean spot at the time, the graffiti had only started that month. Ran into some explorers, bums, and random kids throughout the day. Wondering what kind of shape it's in, now...
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In May and June I made two more trips to Gary for the century-old portions of an abandoned hospital - which were finally doable for the first time since I started going down there in 2009. I wrote about it, here...
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I also knocked one of the other schools out on the June trip. It was late in the day and I didn't take many pictures, though... everyone and their mom's already been here, so no big loss. The attic has some really cool shit, though.
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The big tamale came in July, with the impending demolition of Johnson Motors - a.k.a. Outboard Marine Corporation Plant #1, in Waukegan. ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY GIANT factory, corporate HQ, training school, engineering, R&D, and product development facility that was once home to Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors; with parts of the complex going back to 1927. Following the OMC bankruptcy right before Christmas 16 years ago, the plant was sold to Bombardier, who eventually wound-down this operation and moved across the Wisconsin border a decade later.
I spent three Sundays, here - predawning all three of them - and saw everything before some kids blew my cover on day three. The cops found me, first... fortunately I knew the beach ranger that was with them, so nobody got arrested. The place has since been leveled, and with the last dead factory gone: the stage is virtually set for the Waukegan lakefront to be redeveloped.
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I also made a video of the place:
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In August, my hometown began preparing a long-shuttered gelatin factory for demo. I've been frequenting it ever since. It was growing up across the park from here that spawned my earlymost interest in exploring and old buildings, so this one kind of sucks to lose. Parts of the complex go back a century, and those parts of the building are actually in the best condition (the mid-century expansions were all falling apart). Structural demo began just a couple of weeks ago, and fortunately I've learned the smoke stack will be preserved.
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Oh yeah, I did stop in Gary one more time after a Local H show in Valpo. Did some night stuff at the church - only liked this fifteenish-minute exposure. Haven't been back, since.
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For the first time in four years I went back to the Damen Silos after an October car show on the south side. I decided trying to shoot the car was a waste of time because there were SO MANY PEOPLE there and I kept getting photobombed... so that kinda turned into an afternoon of peoplewatching, more than anything.
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Someone here posted a television factory that had been repurposed into a whole bunch of shit over the years (including band practice rooms), so I did that one weekend in November. Another one on the "need to go back, soon" list.
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...and finally, the year's last project was a recently-shuttered shopping mall. Made three runs here in a two-week span: two shoots, one loots to grab blueprints and stuff. I'll probably hit it again in the spring and re-shoot a bunch of these - many have already changed for the worse. It got blown up on WGN... the graff and vandalism started in the first week after the media blitz, and now I'm told it's already thrashed.
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W/MyOwnEyes
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Re: MMXVI < Reply # 3 on 12/30/2016 1:35 AM > | Reply with Quote
40 stuck out for me also. Love those streaks of light you captured. Your B&W's rock and your colors pop. 62 and 63 makes my eyes dance around in a frantic frenzy....I can imagine trying to shoot that place- WOW! lol Good year J.
A place of Mystery is Always worth a curiosity trip!
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lol Good year J. 
